What's this?? A new blog post??

I am back. Okay, I never really left. I have been suffering from a bad case of hockey overload the last few weeks. In the hockey world, "hockey overload" is the third worst affliction, right behind "hockey drought syndrome" and Minnesota Wild fan. I have been bunkered down in my man-cave watching the Minnesota High School tournament, NCAA tournament, the Wild choke-job down the stretch, and the National Broomball Championship on ESPN 8 (The Ocho). All this has kept from my appointed post as postmaster of the Express Blog.

At this point it would take a blogpost roughly the size of the Warren Report to catch up on everything that has happened since my last post, so I'm not even going to try. What's past is past, and what is present is the NAHL playoffs.

- South Division: Springfield and Wichita Falls are decent teams, but there is no way that either of them gets in the way of an epic finals matchup between Topeka and St Louis. The Roadrunners and Bandits both sweep their first round opponents.

- West Division: I really don't care, as this is a horrible division. If the Albert Lea Thunder played in the West Division, they would have qualified for the playoffs. Fairbanks will advance to the division finals by beating Kenai River in 4 games. The Alaska Avalanche versus Wenatchee Wild matchup could be an entertaining series. I see the Wild winning in 4 or maybe 5 games.

- North Division: The USNTDP made a late run to clinch the division championship, but that was to be expected with the U18 team playing a lot at the end of the regular season. I assume it will be the U17 team playing Alpena in the first round, which could be a very interesting series with Alpena. Former Express goalie Nick Graves has shown the ability at times to dominate in this league, and if the Icediggers can find any bit of offense they could give the U17's a run for their money. In the other matchup in the North, Mahoning Valley is taking on Traverse City. MVP has a veteran team with a lot of playoff experience, and I think that gets them a series win in 4 games.

- Central Division: As much as I would love the Alexandria Blizzard to knock off the Bismarck Bobcats, I just don't see it happening. Bobcats in a 3 game sweep.

Now onto the main event: Express vs. Outlaws. The Express have been playing well lately. Yeah, they have struggled against the Bobcats in Bismarck, but we'll cross that bridge after sending the Outlaws home for the summer. As Paul over at the Mahoning Valley Phantoms blog put it: Who wants to face Pat Cullen in the playoffs?? Something tells me Cullen has a few aces up his sleeve that will get played when the situation warrants. I give the Express a definitive edge in offensive firepower, and I think defensively it's a push between the two teams. Horstman played very well against the Outlaws at Shattuck a few weeks ago, and Bergman has shown flashes of dominance at times lately. Callaghan/Asmundson for the Outlaws isn't a bad tandem either, and if they play well the Express will have trouble scoring. Asmundson dominated the Express most of the season, but he the Express put up a 7 spot on him on March 13th, and Callaghan gave up 10 goals in his last two appearances against our favorite junior hockey team.

Anyway way you slice it, this should be a great series. Prediction-wise, I look for the Express and Outlaws to split the first weekend's games, and then win the pair of games at Shattuck to take the series in 4 games. That's right, you heard it here first: Express in 4.

See you at the rink.

--Big Kahuna